Spectator the Freedom to Ridicule

Let's say I'm writing a column for TIME and want to demonstrate what a lame novelist Robert James Waller is. Easy, in every sense. I get a copy of Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (which is published by Time Warner), pluck out a piece of lazy prose, and print it here: "A monkey called, sounding far and lonesome. The classic jungle sound from old Tarzan movies." Or I could go a step further and mimic Waller, as Billy Frolick does in his new book-length parody, The Ditches of Edison County ("Concave's scream echoed through the canyons and ditches of Edison County,...

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